Medical Journalist Report of Innovative Biologics
A Sensitivity Assay that Proves Food Is the First and Best Medicine

Caregivers of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) often instruct their patients on what has long been known about the workings of Mother Nature: nutritious food is good CAM therapy. The 1960's adage, 'you are what you eat," could be emblazoned on the reception room walls of every holistic health care professional to remind patients how important nutritious eating is to their health.

"One-Size-Fits-All" Diets
Widespread and commonly employed by the government, dietiticians, and by both nutritionists and physicians, "one-size-fits-all" diets have become standardized menu plans and food supplements for everyday consumers and patients. The truth is that both the caregivers and their patients have no way of knowing which foods are allergenic until each patient is tested for responses to antigenic foods. Yet, allergens can be detected and documented simply by health professionals taking samples of their patients' blood and submitting them for bloodprinting by the Immuno Laboratories facility in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

Tammy Born, DO, Utilizes Human Bloodprinting
"Because I have confirmed repeatedly that human bloodprinting is the most significant diagnostic tool available to me, I use it every day. If there was only one test I might be allowed to perform on all patients, it would be this diagnostic food assay. Bloodprinting provides an exact list of what each person should eat and not eat," states preventive medicine specialist Tammy Born, DO, Medical Director of the Born Preventive Health Care Clinic in Grand Rapids, Michigan. "Human bloodprinting invariably helps patients, and I can offer case histories to illustrate the test's value.

"Lets look at my son, Drew, who at age three frequently experienced ear infections. The lmmuno Laboratories bloodprinting assay uncovered that Drew was highly allergic to eggs. Removing this food from his diet had my son completely free of symptoms, but even occasional feeding him his favorite, scrambled eggs, caused the boy to become someone I could hardly recognize," Dr. Born explains. "He quickly became unacceptably irritable, argumentative, sensitive, and uncontrollably tearful. Then, the next day Drew always became nasal with runny nose all stuffed up so that he couldn't breathe. In another 24 hours he would be struck by severe ear pain from infection. His was an absolutely classic allergic response.

"Now, ten years later, Drew can tolerate eggs very well. But without my having that original knowledge provided by his Immuno 1 Bloodprint^TM he would have remained chronically sick with constant ear trouble, clogged nose, fretfulness, and exceedingly short-tempered. Here was a fine example of what allergenic food elimination can do to restore health to a little boy," assures his physician/mother.

"Let me offer another example of the bloodprinting's excellence: About two years ago a 44-year-old female patient, consulted me for chronic sinusitis. Periodically her nasal passages swelled causing pressure, pain, headache, fever, and local tenderness. Every year from September through May she required a physician's prescription for antibiotics. Their adverse side effects caused her to respond with various symptoms: gastric cramps, bowel pain, metallic mouth taste, vaginal yeast infections, and more," Dr. Born says. "But by following the instructions which accompanied her human bloodprint, my patient just stopped having attacks of sinusitis. Thus, she experienced no more antibiotic side effects. Now, just this week for an unrelated matter, I had a pleasant visit from her. The woman reports feeling ecstatic with her complete freedom from sinus trouble and antibiotic usage.

"Another use for my application of the Immuno Laboratories' bloodprinting test is to find the real cause for a gastroenterologist's non-descript diagnosis of 'irritable bowel syndrome' (IBS) [which really means 'You have something wrong with your gut, and I don't know what it is']. My technique for determining why a patient's lBS is present merely requires a blood draw for an Immuno 1 Bloodprint^TM with an accompanying stool analysis. By acting on the diagnosis derived from these two simple tests, bloodprinting and stool evaluation, within two weeks my patient gets rid of gas, cramping, pain, and other abdominal symptoms," Dr. Born adds.

"This bloodprint assay is really helpful for additional health problems, too: autism, asthma, arthritis, and various degenerative diseases. And the elimination diet is a mandatory follow up to bloodprinting. It's the key for allowing a person to function healthfully once again. The body's immune response to certain foods is directly tied to symptoms of degenerative diseases, especially arthritis," says Dr. Born. Articular heat production, irritation, general inflammation, and other joint difficulties are part of the immune system's response to food allergens.

"Immuno 1 Bloodprint^TM responses are reproducible — a couple of times I've checked the test using the same patient's blood. I've marked it with two different identifying names and received back bloodprint reports showing exactly the same readouts," Dr. Born says. "I'm impressed. The results I witness are clinically significant since my patients become well once again by following guidelines sent out by the staff of Immuno Laboratories. The personnel are superb in their performance; each is supportive, cooperative, accurate, and reliable, especially laboratory director Dr. John Rebello. And you must know that a clinical laboratory is only as defect-free as its laboratory director."

Immuno Laboratories Director John Rebello, PhD

Shown here offering instruction on the immune system is the Immuno Laboratories director, John L. Rebello, PhD. Raised in Bombay, India, Dr. Rebello was an honors graduate of St. Xavier’s College with a major in microbiology, a minor in chemistry, and a teaching assistantship. His master’s thesis was ”Anti-viral Principles from Indian Medicinal Plants. Dr. Rebello became an assistant professor at that same institution and then taught microbiology to undergraduate students in the United States. He went on to receive a post-doctoral fellowship in the department of microbiolology and immunology at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. Before coming to lmmuno Laboratories, Dr. Rebello worked on ELISA procedures for detecting hepatitis and HIV antibodies. Eventually he perfected use of the ELISA methodology for devising bloodprinting in his present position where Dr. Rebello has worked for 18 years.

Director of Immuno Laboratories since 1986, John L. Rebello, PhD, has been awarded a doctorate in biochemistry by the State University of New York in Buffalo, and received a post-doctoral fellowship in the department of microbiology and immunology at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. Dr. Rebello also taught and conducted research in the department of biochemistry at Texas A & M University until he began a career in industry specializing in developing techniques for detecting, isolating and purifying targeted organic molecules. Techniques he employs at Immuno Laboratories are similar to those well established for detecting hepatitis and the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).

The Immuno 1 Bloodprint^TM designed by Dr. Rebello, utilizes the Indirect Method of Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA.) His test detects the presence or absence of a patient's blood antibodies known to be indirectly involved in the allergic food reaction. In two of his publications, author Sidney M. Baker, MD, recommends this same ELISA lgG test.^2,3 Dr. Baker writes, The test I find most useful measures lgG antibodies to foods... We have found that this test is quite valid when done at a laboratory with reliable methods. In certain situations, it is an essential tool in the treatment of patients with complex chronic illness. However, this test is technically tricky and lab directors have told me that they have tried to set it up and could not get consistent results. John Rebello of Immuno Laboratories in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida has perfected a technique that produces results that are reliable by the strictest definition of laboratory dependability. Moreover, his tests are the only ones subjected to scientific clinical studies in which patient success is based on the lab results⁴.

The Rebello Bloodprint Procedure
Dr. Rebello was required to perfect his own testing system, including a procedure for cleaning and preparing the potential allergen plates. These plates are shaped into a matrix of wells containing a minute specimen of each antigen. The allergens or antigens must first be "optimized" before coating the wells of the microtiter plate. Optimization of antigens is the first important step in producing accurate results.

1) Draw a sample of the patients blood for centrifuging so that only the serum, which contains antibodies, is used for the test.

Shown here is the application instrument, an octapet consisting of eight arms in a pipette, that starts the subject’s blood evaluation procedure. This octapet contains diluted reagents. The technician is supplying these reagents into 96 microtiter wells which will undergo processing. The microtiter wells have already been coated with various food antigens and the plate is then incubated at room temperature for two hours. As the serum incubates, lgG binds to the allergen-coated wells.

2) Optimally dilute this serum for buffering and place it (using a dropper device) into a microtiter plate which has already been coated with various food antigens. Specific antibody from the serum will bind the food antigen in that particular well. Each food antigen applied to the microtiter well forms a first layer of molecular test material. Thus the blood serum containing antibodies forms a second layer of molecular test material.

3) "The plate containing the antigens and the diluted blood serum is then incubated at room temperature for two hours," explains Dr. Rebello. "As the serum incubates, lgG binds to the allergen-coated wells. The only allergens undergoing a bindary reaction are those which are affected by specific antibodies floating in the patient's blood serum. All the other antigens are unaffected by the presence of the blood serum."

4) Detection of the antibodies begins by washing the test plate three times with a buffer to remove any antibody or serum proteins which have not been bound to food antigens in the plate. Anti-lgG conjugate is added to all the wells of the plate and kept for one-hour incubation at room temperature. The conjugate is a mixture of anti-lgG with the enzyme HorseRadish PerOxidase (HAPO). The anti-immunoglobulin can be thought of as forming a third layer of molecular test material and HRPO as a fourth layer.

5) Dr. Rebello continues, "The unbound conjugate then gets washed off and replaced by another substrate, TetraMethyl Benzidine (TMB). acted upon by HRPO to produce a blue-colored compound. Incubation is allowed to take place for a half-hour, after which the reaction ends by contact with sulphuric acid. The entire enzymatic reaction undergoes a color change from blue to yellow".

Two colors, blue and yellow, show up in the plates filled with microtiter wells. After having been washed three times to remove antibody proteins, anti-lgG conjugate with HRPO (horseradish peroxidase) is added to the microtiter wells and incubated for an hour. Plates are washed, and TMB (tetramethyl benzidine) is then added. This addition produces a blue color which is allowed to incubate for 30 minutes and then the reaction gets stopped with sulphuric acid that changes the solution to yellow for greater absorption and test sensitivity.

Light scanning by a computerized spectrophotometer determines the intensity of the yellow color. A color intensity rating of 1 through 4 is assigned to a well location when the spectrophotometer detects the yellow color, meaning this tested person will be experiencing an lgG allergic reaction to that particular food (and possibly to all foods in the same food family). The absence of any color is rated zero, meaning no antibodies are present reactive to that particular food antigen. The patient is free to eat this food without any danger of a delayed lgG allergic reaction unless the bloodprint reveals that other foods in the same food family did generate a reaction.

Shown is Dr. John Rebello observing the workings of Immuno Laboratories’ spectrophotometric automatic reader which deciphers the 96-well plate at 450 nanometers (nm). Upon reading each plate, the spectrophotometer turns its work over to the program of an inputting computer (also shown in the foreground), which corrects for blanks and converts the optical density into degrees of reaction.

The Immuno 1 Bloodprint^TM makes it possible to provide a patient with dietary recommendations and restrictions that are simple, specific and minimal, but which will have a maximal effect. Often the effects are immediate. A three-month introduction period is commenced as quickly as possible which involves a food rotation. Sufficient time must be allowed for the antibodies already built up in the patient's bloodstream to subside once the offending foods are discontinued.

A Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled Study of IgG Food ELISA
When accurate, reliable testing is used, the results of a double blind placebo-controlled crossover study involving 15 patients presented at an advanced seminar of the American Academy of Environmental Medicine in 1994, demonstrated dramatic differences from a diet restricting allergy reactive foods. Researchers Sidney M. Baker, MD, Maureen McDonnell, RN, and Carroll V. Truss, PhD, concluded that, "Despite negative mitigating factors (caused by the placebo-diet), the study showed with overwhelming statistical significance, that the avoidance of lgG foods resulted in a decrease in symptom severity greater than that achieved by a placebo diet." (See Graph A depicting effects from the double-blind placebo-controlled crossover study.)

Graph A: Depicted is a graph showing results from the double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover study of lgG food ELISA conducted by three researchers, Sidney MacDonald Baker, MD, Maureen McDonnell, RN, and Carroll V. Truss, PhD, who presented their findings before the American Academy of Environmental Medicine in October 1994.

Hidden Food Allergies and Diabetes
Hidden food allergies are so pervasive that testing for them should be the first step in determining a patient's dietary program before discussion of potential effects from consumption of any specific foods. This is especially crucial for an illness which uses diet as the primary treatment. For example, how can any dietician recommend a menu plan or some other dietary program for a diabetic without first knowing to which foods the person is allergic? Diabetes is a serious health problem by itself, but recommending foods in an eating program to which he or she is allergic, will actually make that patient feel sicker instead of better. Luckily, it is simple to avoid this problem by first testing the individual for allergic food reactions and then designing appropriate menu plans.

Testing for food allergies is so simple it could be done for all patients seen by a medical practitioner. The symptoms of toxic food syndrome are diverse; therefore, hidden food allergies should be the initial line of investigation with all patients.

Vern Cherewatenko, MD, Bloodprints Patients Routinely
Family practice specialist Vern Cherewatenko, MD, Director of HealthMax, a CAM clinic in Renton, Washington, and author of The Stress Cure,⁵ affirms, "I think one of the very first things that a physician should do is ask the patient, 'Has anyone ever tested you for a link between what you eat and how you are feeling?' It's mandatory to find out what people are feeding themselves and then run a scientific test to find out what antibodies they've developed. "Being a family practitioner, I use food allergy testing in patients as a first line therapy to determine their underlying cause of illness. Bloodprinting is my most important diagnostic treatment. And I call this procedure a treatment, even though it's a laboratory assay, because when I receive the test results I can educate my patients to make them understand their allergies," states Dr. Vern Cherewatenko.

Holistic physicians are all too familiar with the conundrum of a new patient who presents with a confusing collection of symptoms. A patient's negative response to the question, "have you ever been tested for food allergies?" can immediately shed light on a probable source of illness. Patients experiencing persistent, chronic symptoms that have evaded diagnosis and treatment despite the best diagnostic tools and medications that allopathic medicine has to offer, are probably suffering from toxic food syndrome.

Food Allergy Testing Is Used by Lyman Fritz, MD
Bloodprinting for food allergies has been incorporated into the assessment of patients by Lyman Fritz, MD, board certified family practice specialist in Birmingham, Alabama, who offers health care at The Fritz Clinic. Dr. Fritz relies on food allergy testing and an elimination dietary procedure as components of detoxification to promote his patients' wellness and anti-aging. He explains, "As part of my usual basic physical workup I always require a patient to undergo the delayed onset allergy test involving the Immuno 1 Bloodprint.TM I like to combine the elimination rotation diet that this test provides with Dr. Barry Sears' Zone Diet. The elimination of toxic foods joined to the Zone Diet makes it easy for me to achieve healthy weight loss for my patients.

"Fortunately, results of the Immuno 1 Bloodprint^TM offer a sure diagnosis including unambiguous scientific proof. With bloodprinting's results I can furnish my patient with the basis for a cure just involving changes in food intake. Many patients benefit immediately when they know which foods to avoid that are 'poisonous' to them (but fine for other people)," says Dr. Fritz. "Despite inconveniences of restricting offending foods, people consulting me breathe a sigh of relief when informed that their chronic symptoms result from food allergies and not from a more lethal and difficult to treat disease."

Michael Constantine, ND, Explains Overall Effects of Testing
Having earned his doctorate in naturopathic medicine and now assisting the State of Florida with establishing naturopathy licensing procedures, Michael Constantine, ND, is expert on using the Immuno 1 Bloodprint^TM as part of patient therapy. His knowledge of nutrition and bloodprinting is provided by Immuno Laboratories to health professionals who are new to food allergy testing. Dr. Constantine explains, "The bloodprint's structure for achieving patient wellness involves incorporating an elimination diet intent upon removing the tested reactive foods for 90 days. Added to this is a rotation diet consisting of non-reactive foods. Part of this practice is nutritionally-oriented and a second part involves pure immunology.

Probably the first thing that most bloodprinted patients report, is an improvement in energy from improved sleeping and experiencing elevated energy during the day," continues Dr. Constantine. "Lots of other subtle symptoms disappear as well: a runny nose clears; ringing in the ears stops; irritable bowel syndrome goes away; discomforts from rheumatoid arthritis improve. Invariably relief from the person's chief complaint is found. It all happens within the three-month-period because this interval is about the time it takes for immunoglobulin G to catabolize.

"Allergies are considered a 'mistake' by the immune system. If the patient's immune system is allowed a chance to recover and not bombarded by food antigens, it will gear up and use its own natural self-defenses."

The Candida albicans Immunoassay and Gluten Test
A blood test for the presence of Candida albicans is offered by Immuno Laboratories to accompany its food allergy test. Dr. Rebello developed the Candida albicans Immunoassay to detect lgG reactions to any of the fungal organism's cytoplasmic antigen (after breaking down the cell wall). Since numerous patients will test positive for candidiasis, this new test is so sensitive that the presence of Candida a/b/cans fungi is assigned a numerical score gauging its concentration. Candidiasis is both a diagnosis and an overall indicator of a patient's health, such as leaky gut.⁶

"Most doctors use the Immuno Laboratories' candidiasis test not to determine if their patient has the condition," Dr. Constantine explains, "but to find out at what level of immunity the patient is functioning." An instruction book, The Immuno Health Guide, supplied with the test results, includes detailed patient recommendations for combating this disabling yeast infection.

Bread and bakery desserts are such a fundamental part of the American diet, the Immuno 1 Bloodprint^TM includes additional testing for gluten reactions. As explained by Dr. Rebello, "Gluten is a protein-carbohydrate substance found in the endosperm of wheat and rye, and to a lesser extent barley and oats. Gluten is the substance in wheat responsible for the trapping of carbon dioxide during the rising of dough in the bread making process. It is this property of gluten that lends the spongy texture to bread... Gliadin is very rich in the conditionally essential amino acid glutamine, which makes up approximately 43% of its amino acid content. Gluten, which is gliadin and carbohydrates, comprises practically the entire endosperm of the wheat kernel." Experience shows that some patients will receive a mixture of positive and negative results, such as positive to wheat and negative to oats. Dr. Rebello can perform a test specifically for gliadin antibodies to resolve the contradiction.

The Lancet reported that during the 1980's and 1990's, it became apparent that celiac disease was underdiagnosed and that the clinical features of the disease changed in both children and adults. The presence of circulating antibodies and their disappearance on a gluten-free diet support the diagnoses.⁷ Although a peroral small-bowel biopsy of the damaged intestinal tissue is the definitive diagnosis of celiac disease, with a follow-up biopsy after treatment with a gluten-free diet, Dr. Rebello's diagnostic blood tests are equally useful indicators for recognizing this destructive illness.

Resource
For more information about the Immuno 1 BloodprintTM and other blood tests, or to receive a complimentary copy of Toxic Food Syndrome, written by laboratory owner Jeffrey S. Zavik, contact Immuno Laboratories, Inc., 6801 Powerline Road, Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33309 USA; 800-231-9197 or 954-691-2500; Fax 954-691-2505; Email: info@immunolabs.com; Medical consumers' website: www.betterhealthusa.com; Health professionals' website: www.immunolabs.com.

References
1. Zavik, J.S. & Thompson, J. Toxic Food Syndrome (Fort Lauderdale, FL: Fun Publishing, 2002), P. 6.
2. Baker, SM. Detoxification and Healing (New Canaan, CT: Keats Publishing, Inc., 1997), pp. 114-116.
3. Baker, S. M., Optimal Digestion — New Strategies for Achieving Digestive Health. Avon Books, inc., New York, New York, 1999, p. 157
4. op. cit.
5. Cherewatenko, V. The Stress Cure (New York City: Harper Collins, 300 pp), September 2003.
6. Trowbridge, J.P. and Walker, M. The Yeast Syndrome (New York City: Bantam Books,1986)
7. Maki, M. & Collin, P. "Coeliac disease "The Lancet 349 (9067):1755, June 14, 1997.

Taking life easy in his North Carolina garden is Immuno Laboratories founder & owner Jeffrey S. Zavik, who lives a largely nonpolluted lifestyle. His food is grown organically and without additives of any kind in raised beds.

Eighteen years ago Zavik decided to adopt this philosophy as a way of life with his wife and two children in the mountains of North Carolina, by farming organically using forty-five raised beds. He lives a lifestyle of environmental purity and says to readers, "How much are you spending right now on foods that are actually slowly poisoning you? You're likely purchasing perfectly good supermarket groceries, even some from health food stores, but if you're highly sensitive or allergic to something like gliadin or gluten in wheat, you could be buying detrimental food stuffs. For instance, it might be whole wheat bread which is causing unrecognized adverse gliadin-associated reactions.